Come Out the Wilderness: Memoir of a Black Woman Artist (The Cross-Cultural Memoir Series) - Hardcover

Májozo, Estella Conwill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1558612068 ISBN 13: 9781558612068

Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1999

Synopsis

Estella Conwill Majozo has lead a life of creativity and leadership in the arts. A respected poet, teacher, and performance artist, Majozo writes eloquently about both the deep roots in family and community that have sustained her, and the conflicts and challenges that have confronted her, as they have many creative and self-aware African American women over the last half-century.

This memoir traces the paths Majozo has taken from the "Little Africa" section of segregated Louisville, through a difficult marriage and a Ph.D. at the University of Iowa, to New York, where Majozo has become a member of the hardy cultural community of Harlem. It is a testament to the importance of a life lived in pursuit of cultural heritage, spiritual growth, and personal integrity.

About this title

About the Author:

ESTELLA CONWILL MÁJOZO is an associate professor of English at Hunter College, City University of New York, where she teaches creative writing and African-American literature. Her published books of poetry include Libation: A Literary Pilgrimage Through the African American Soul, Jiva Telling Rites, and Metamorphosis. She has developed her work into performances and, in a team collaboration, has created public art projects at venues ranging from the Brooklyn Museum to San Francisco's monument to Martin Luther King, Jr.

From Kirkus Reviews:

An evocative and eventful memoir of a remarkable black woman who made the arts her life and her life an artwork. Born Estella Conwill in 1949, M jozo (African-American Literature/Hunter Coll.) grew up in Louisville, Ky., when it was still segregated; her first strong memory is of fighting between her brothers and neighboring whites. Her father fell to his death while helping a neighbor when the author was a child, and her mother had to work, but Estella tried hard at school, where she was the token colored student, required to be a credit to her race. When a youthful marriage went bad and her husband turned abusive, the devout Catholic spent years trying unsuccessfully to get the marriage annulled. The thoughtlessness of one sexist white priest finally provoked her to explode (though only after shed left his presence): ``I am sorry, Father, that the church is so stupidly insensitive to my situation! That it has never cared about my poor little Black female ass and still has the nerve to call itself the body of Christ, you jerk!'' This is one of several occasions when the reader wants to get up and cheer, but most of M jozos victories are quiet ones: earning one of the first doctorates in African-American literature; founding and running Blackaleidoscope, an arts center in her hometown. Several passages in the book deal with the authors oscillation between New York City, the historic mecca of African-American artists, and her dream of helping black culture thrive in Louisville. She drew sustenance from both places, moving back to New York in 1988 to teach at Hunter. Throughout, M jozos language is richly seasoned with allusions to both black literature and the Bible. Though her memoir chronicles some hard times, including a wrenching miscarriage, it also shows her moving on to new love and challenges. Both personally and professionally, M jozo exemplifies the trials and triumphs of the African-American woman. (22 b&w pohotos, not seen) -- Copyright Š1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1558612068
• ISBN 13: 9781558612068
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256